Tharrington 1
Kaleigh Tharrington
Ms. Wellens
Dual Enrollment
24 May 2010
Is Hamlet’s Insanity Necessary to the Play?
In Shakespeare’s world renowned play, Hamlet, a young Danish prince get’s
caught up in the murder of the king, his father. The plot then comes to life when Hamlet
is visited by the ghost of his late father who shares with him how he was murdered by
Hamlet’s uncle in order to take the crown. The play takes some unexpected turns and has
a tragic ending, but a large part of the story that is often discussed is if Hamlet is truly
mad or he is pretending as he says so in the play. Did this plot of insanity really help him
out? And why did Shakespeare add the element of insanity to the story?
Hamlet is a very outspoken young gentleman with a mind of his own. After
finding out that his father (Hamlet Sr.) was killed by his uncle (Claudius) who had taken
the throne of Demark along with the Queen (Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude), he wants to
prove the murder to himself and to the everyone in Denmark. Hamlet comes up with a
plot to pretend to be mad so see if he can get the truth out one way or another. He tells no
one of his plan except Horatio. His actions are not necessary to the play, but certainly
make it all the more interesting. Hamlet claims to be mad because it ultimately allows
Tharrington 2
him to say and perform actions he otherwise would be prohibited from. The manner he
goes about things in the story are certainly unsuitable for a prince. As he get’s away with
his comments and remarks, he keeps the people from taking his actions completely
serious as well. Hamlet thinks that if he professes insanity he is able to do whatever he
pleases. He is witty and able to say blatantly sexual thing to Ophelia like, “That’s a fair
thought to lie between maids’ legs.” (3.2.125) While Ophelia thinks that he is mad she
doesn’t take offence to the comments and doesn’t know what to say. He also uses his
feigned insanity to say rude things to his mother about marrying his uncle and how she
should be mourning his death.
Hamlet also uses his “madness” as an excuse for killing Polonius when he thought
Claudius was behind the curtain. (3.4.102-103) He first pretends that he thinks the thing
behind the curtain is a rat while he’s secretly hoping it’s the king. “How now? A rat?
Dad, for the ducat, dead!....Nay, I know not, is it the King?” When Hamlet lifts up the
curtain he finds it to be Polonius. Hamlet also shows no remorse for killing Polonius,
even though he hadn’t done anything wrong to him.
Horatio knows everything about how Hamlet is pretending to have gone mad. We
can see that Hamlet really is just “pretending” to be mad and that he’s not actually crazy
in the head. When Hamlet speaks to Horatio his words are that of a sane man. They are
clear and have emotion behind them. Hamlet wants everyone to think he has gone mad,
especially Claudius. All of Hamlet’s remarks made to Claudius give off the effect that he
is insane. “I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk
Tharrington 3
from a handsaw.” (2.2.401) Hamlet also proves that he really is sane by saying “Though
this be madness, yet there is method in’t” (2.2.223)
I do not believe that is was completely necessary for Shakespeare to add Hamlet’s
element of insanity into the play but it did add an entirely new level of drama to the story.
If Hamlet did not feign insanity then none of his actions in the story could had been
justified with just “revenge for his father”. They still had morals and rules back then so
besides the fact that Hamlet was the prince of Denmark, he probably got away with all
the things he did like killing Polonius, driving Ophelia to commit suicide, and sending
that fake letter to England to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed. Shakespeare
made Hamlet feign insanity so then Hamlet was able to essentially get away with murder!
There are still so many unanswered questions from Shakespeare’s works of
literature and they will forever be debated upon. Hamlet is by far, a truly interesting story
and probably one of William Shakespeare’s greatest works of all time.